


GrecoRoman ABC's

by historicallyredacted (lockandkey)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: All resemblance to persons or places is completely coincidental, Alternate Universe - College/University, Comedy, F/F, F/M, Gen, I just tossed them all in, Like about thirty characters, M/M, Multi, No real schools, None of it makes sense, Very little romance, mostly just snark and pranks and mystery~
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2016-04-17
Packaged: 2018-05-08 04:51:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5484101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lockandkey/pseuds/historicallyredacted
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A community college starts a prank-war with a local Ivy League. Neither knows who is underestimating whom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A

**Author's Note:**

> I told myself I wouldn't upload any of this story until it was complete entirely. I said, don't upload another story you haven't finished...but here I am. I broke my promise. I felt festive. I'm sorry.  
> There are probably a bunch of errors in this thing.
> 
> (this is mostly a comedy + hint of mystery + hint of flirting but there isn't any huge romances going on. some canon some not some frazeleo because i am weak)
> 
> I'm American, so this is set in American type colleges/universities. If there is anything that's unclear, just ask me. If you want a lengthy rant on all the things broken within the american education system, I can also provide that, but it'd be faaar less entertaining.

\---  
  
His apartment was not on the college campus; there was no way he could afford a dorm, not between food and rent and classes. His home was shared with 3 others, Jake Mason, Charles Beckendorf, and Nyssa Nkosi. So, needless to say, when Leo walked into his apartment and saw the small area filled with around 15 people, he was a bit taken back. Even more so when he noticed they were all in turtlenecks, hoodies, and various stages of dark makeup adorned their faces

“Oh god, is this an intervention? I swear I'll stop sending memes.”

“It's not an intervention, but please do. We're going to war!” Luke announced proudly.

Leo exhaled. “Good, I wasn't actually going to. And, _really_? You're one to talk.”

“We're going to kick some names and take some ass, are you in or are you in?” Jake yelled, and no one corrected him. Mostly because they weren't certain if he meant it or not.

“A fight, tonight, seriously?” Leo asked, astounded. He searched his roommates faces for some sign that this was some sort of giant joke they were pulling on him.

He had _just_ gotten home, late classes, late long ass classes. He had a full schedule, work and being a full time student on top of that. This was not what Leo was expecting upon arriving back at their apartment.

Okay, it sort of was, knowing who he knew. But, still.

“It's not a fight, okay? Let's get that straight.” Connor said, and his brother-from-another-mother nodded.

“We're not fighting. It's pranking. A somewhat violent pranking.”

“That sounds more like an expelling to me,” Leo whistled. “Nyssa, there's no way you're okay with this are you?”

Nyssa walked out of the kitchenette covered in battle paint and a bandanna, and a baseball bat in one hand.

“Wow, _never the fuck mind_. Boy howdy, did I call that one wrong...”

“Leo, I understand you might have some reservations but, think about it this way, we're only targeting the super rich fuckers. We're talking about Cadigan Univeristy, Leo. We're talking Zeta fucking Lambda Sigma.”

Leo thought about it for a second, before shrugging.

“Fine, hand me the left over Halloween makeup. Time to throw down.”

 

-

 

“So, what is the plan anyway?” They were all hidden behind a row of great shrubbery, decked in black and grays and dark browns. And, some were in full camo, where they got that from, Leo would never know.  
Admittedly, Leo was wearing a camo print jacket too, so you know, he who casts the first stone and all.

“Bravo Team 1 sets up the diversion, we're talking burnt messages in the lawn, pool dyed shit brown, topiary mutilation, silly string sprayed on every damn inch of their statues, and even more on all of the cars.”

“I approve of this.” Leo said slowly, to mumbled agreements of everyone else around them. Clarisse had a look on her face that meant she was likely in charge of this section of the destruction.

“Bravo 2, they've got plausible deniability, in case you want to chicken out.”

“I don't want to go to prison, Connor. I'm too nice to go to prison.” Will glared, but Katie behind him made a face that showed clear disagreement with the statement.

“They'll be our get away vehicles, they'll also be in charge of our stock. You stock up, empty, go back, stock up, rinse and repeat. If someone gets on your tail too early into the plan, run the fuck away, get away. Bravo 1 already has bail out routes planned, for maximum effectiveness, so hopefully it shouldn't be a problem. We all know the golden rules here, right? Do NOT lead them back to the get away vehicles, and don't reveal the identity of any of your brothers and sisters. You're expected to fall on your swords, okay?”

“Why that imagery?” Beckendorf asked, before getting an elbow to the ribs from Clarisse.

“Now, Bravo 3, after the diversion does it's job, Bravo 3 gets into the dorms. This is the most dangerous part of the plan. You've got a much higher chance of getting caught, and subsequently getting the shit beat out of you, tied to a flag pole, and your entire body covered in honey and bird seed; and, in all likeliness, tazed and pepper sprayed.. But, you will, on the other hand, live forever in the stars and the songs of our people.”

“Oh, suicidal plans, I love those.” Leo mumbled after seeing his friends expecting looks. ”Sounds awesome.”

“Bravo 3, you'll be fit with silly string, shaving cream, super glue, eggs, sharpies, and glow sticks.”

“I think I've been to a party like that before,” Dakota piped up, he received a high five from Clarisse and Jake.

“That sounds like a terrible party.” Gwen frowned, and Leo had to agree with her. He preferred his genitals not duct-taped to his thigh, it was just a general pet peeve he had.

“So, where am I in all of this, and why hadn't I heard about it until tonight?” Leo asked, shifting his position. No one wanted to sit bare assed on the damp lawn in the dark, but crouching for so long was tiring on leg muscles that had not seen much exercise in the last ever.

“Well, you were working and studying. We told you now, didn't we? That's good enough.” Goddamn Stolls.

“We need you to get down into the boiler room in the basement, and shut off all of the power to the building. You're the first wave. Once the majority of students leave the building to see the diversion, you sneak in, quick like a ninja and turn off all the power. Then, Bravo 3 gets in and fucks shit up and gets out.”

“Brilliant, really, I love it, but what about retaliation?” Leo asked. “Their school can cover the damage costs, ours cant.”

Lou Ellen looked insulted, “you think we haven't thought of that?”

“I mean....no?”

“We have! All of our paint and silly string is in the school colors of their football rivals, NU. They have a much longer, well known feud. And, their school is just as rich as this one. If they retaliate against anyone, they'll hit NU. And, if they hit NU, NU hits back as retaliation for what they'll see as an attack. We'll ignite a prank war between the two.”

“So, we sit back and watch the world burn?” Leo asked, monotone. He received about 30 nods in response.

“Great, I love it. Let's suit up.” Leo clapped his hands together enthusiastically.

“Oh my god, no more super hero references.” Katie groaned, and Lee nodded repeatedly.

“Yeah, I haven't seen the last movie yet.”

“Shut up Fletcher.”

 

–

 

“Is it a bad thing that I've got the Mission Impossible music going through my head on repeat?”

Travis swung an arm over Leo's shoulder, “not at all. Not at all.”

“Awesome,” Leo grinned a smile with far too many visible teeth. “Wish me luck, compadre.”

With that, and a jacket full of supplies for once he had completed his initial task and could join Bravo 3, Leo scampered off. He slide under a fence, and leapt over a bush, in a way that had him whispering parkour to himself, but probably looked more like a wounded dolphin attempting to breach the waves.

Zeta Lambda Sigma's fraternity house was gigantic, in part due to the fact it shared a wing with the smaller but still present sorority Epsilon Theta Phi. The sorority wouldn't be spared, while the main target was the fraternity, the true target was the university itself. It was one of the top colleges in the country, and just a few miles away from one of the poorest colleges within 10 states in either direction. That college, the poor one, was Leo's and his friends and classmates.

It was _long_ overdue for them to strike at the heart of the other school. What kind of school has a budget for, 'campus beautification'?

 

Leo hid himself up against the side of the building, close to a hallway window, but hidden within the darkness and the branches of the camellia next to the structure.

“ _Lion cub, this is Thing 1, do you read me, over.”_

Leo lifted up his walkie talkie to answer Connor, “this is lion cub, I heard you loud and clear, over.”

“ _The plan in commencing, stay tuned for your signal, over.”_

“Gotcha, over.”

 

it was quiet for a number of minutes, but soon Leo could hear commotion coming from inside of the building he was below, something had gotten their attention in a bad way. It started off small enough, but soon it was a torrent. Cursing commenced, and stomping of feet pounded down the hallways, in what felt like what would shake the entire structure.

Then Leo got a whiff of the fire, and grinned.

“This is Lion Cub, wondering what you guys burned into their lawn, over.”

“ _Lion Cub, this is King Arthur. Thing 2 tells me the message was, 'YOUR MOM', over.”_ Gwen's voice came over calmly through the speaker.

“Beautiful.”

“ _Bravo 1 has moved to the first position. Lion Cub, this is your signal to begin stage 2, over.”_

“Autobots rolling out, over.”

“ _Leo, no.”_

 

Leo shoved the walkie talkie into a pocket, and stood up to peak into the window. Perfect, no one was in the hallway.

Cautiously pushing open the window and crawling in over the sill, Leo began very slowly down the hallway. He kept the window propped open in case he had to make a beeline for it, because Leo still had to make it all the way down a long hallway, then down a long staircase to the boiler room, all without being seen.

Leo began to suspect the reason they wanted him to do this part of the plan had less to do with the fact he was an engineer and could turn off the buildings power, and more to do with the fact he weighed 2 pounds in wet clothes. No floorboards would be squeaking under his feet.

He made it to the stairwell, and down a flight before hearing voices above him, sounding like they were a floor above the one he had started on. Hugging the wall to stay out of sight, Leo waited.

“Those bastards! I can't believe this.”

“I can't believe you care so much....”

“Oh, this is personal.”

“Percy, calm down. Don't give me that look.”

“You don't understand, you're not in a fraternity.”

“Kind of glad I'm not, actually. Given everyth-” the voices trailed off as the group of speakers moved further down their hallway.

Leo breathed out a sigh of relief, and looked over the banner to make sure no one else was coming up the staircase, before heading down into the basement. There would be another door, and another set of stairs to the boiler room. There was unlikely to be anyone in that part of the basement, not with what was going on outside it sounded like, but there was a good chance the room would be locked.

Maybe another reason they picked Leo, because picking Leo meant picking someone who could pick locks, boy I wrote pick a lot there. 

The basement was pitch black, which was actually to Leo's benefit, because it meant no one was down there with him. He pulled a small LED key chain flashlight out of his pocket to check out the lock on the door. It was a standard pin tumbler lock, not surprising given the age of the building. Key cards and extra security might be in computer labs on campus, but not the boiler room in a frat house.

Leo pulled out his own key ring, which had more than one bump key on it..for....reasons that were very legal in origin.

Leo popped in a key, popped the key on the back, and badda boom, the door unlocked. Heading down the dark stairs into the boiler room, Leo shut the door behind him, just to be safe, and kept his flashlight on.

There wasn't really any need to have an engineer present, there were more than one fuse boxes, all of which took a flip of a switch to turn off. Which Leo did with a jaunty whistle.

He could hear commotion floors above him.

“This is Lion Cub, Total Eclipse of the Heart is in action. Move on to phase three, over.”

“ _Rodger, Lion Cub. Bravo 3 is in the hen house. Join the revelries, over.”_

“I love my life.” Leo smiled to the empty room around him.

“ _Lion Cub, this is Willow, I figured you'd want to know that we're taping the chaos inside the building, and then uploading it onto the ΑΣΤ YouTube channel.”_ Lou Ellen's voice came over the speaker, she was likely in the building, judging by the yelling and screaming going on in the background.

“Beautiful. Evil, and beautiful.”

Leo had climbed the stairs, locking the boiler room behind him, obviously, and the sight that awaited him nearly brought him to tears.

Within minutes the walls and halls had been decked in various creams and colors, and silly string spelled out webs of insults across every door and potted plant within the vicinity. People dressed in black darted round like shadows, only visible by the glow stick trail of light they left behind them in the darkness. Eggs crashed all around him like bombs falling to earth. Members of the fraternity had moved inside, but there were too few, enough were still likely chasing Bravo 1. The frat brothers and the few sorority sisters indoors looked bewildered, unable to act immediately, unable to really pin down what was happening.

Luke sped by the breakfast nook on a self balancing skateboard decked in neon lights, one that he most certainly didn't own, screaming, 'how do you like Armageddon?!'

“ _Bravo 3. move out. I repeat, Bravo 3 move out, over!”_ Gwen yelled from the walkie talkie, and as disorganized as they appeared to be, all of Leo's schoolmates made a break for it instantly, dropping whatever they were carrying.

Leo ran to join them, but then something happened.

A hand reached around his mouth, and pulled him backwards into the darkness. His arms were pulled back hard behind him, he was immobile.

Leo felt someone else reach into his pocket to pull out his walkie talkie, before throwing it against the wall and hearing it shatter into many broken pieces.

“You did good, just not good enough.” A voice breathed into his ear, before a cloth tied around his mouth and a bag went over his head.

 

\---

 

“We didn't get any,” a voice lamented as it entered whatever room they were currently. As far as Leo could tell, no one had turned the lights back on yet. No one had likely been able to get the door unlocked.

“They were faster than us, and had this thing planned. I appreciate the planning, I don't appreciate the destruction of property.”

“Why haven't the lights been turned on yet?”

“Downstairs is locked. It's been locked, I don't know how they got in, if they did it from the inside at all.”

“What, you think they cut the power from the outside? Do you really think they'd go that far?”

“This is ΑΣΤ we're talking about...they've gone to some pretty crazy lengths in the past. You remember the Chicken Incident, don't you?”

“They did it from the inside,” a girls voice closer to Leo announced. A light was shined on the bag over his head, a flashlight probably.

“Oh, shit, you got one! Good job Hazel!”

“ _This one_ was the one who shut off the power, he picked the lock, then locked it behind him after he left.” The hood was pulled off his head and Leo pinched his eyes closed at the sudden amount of light being aimed directly into his face.

Two young guys, one with dark hair, the other with shorter blond hair, looked like they were competing to get all up in Leo's face.

“Okay, you ΑΣΤ piece of-”

“Percy, I know you've been watching a lot of buddy cop movies but this isn't the time.” A girls voice warned the dark haired kid, who shut up.

“Who was behind this?” The brighter seeming blond guy asked. Leo shrugged a shoulder.

“No hablo Ingles.”

“Oh,” A dark haired girl stepped up beside the blond. “Hablas Espanol?”

“Fuck, well, I wasn't really counting on there being any Mexicans here.” Leo sighed.

“I'm Puerto Rican.” She corrected, with a menacing glare.

“Look,” Leo decided it was time to lie his ass off. “I'm not even part of their frat, okay? I'm not Alpha Sigma Tau. I go to Nikolas Uni, but I'm an engineering student, they gave me 500 dollars to pick a lock and turn off the power.”

“He's lying, he had a walkie talkie. He was definitely in on the whole thing.” A giant fucking menacing dude stepped around the chair Leo had been dumped into. Leo recognized the voice as the one who grabbed him. It made a lot more sense now, given the guy was like a fucking Goliath.

The lights came on, and everyone around cheered. A moment later a punk rock looking girl walked into the room. She wasn't someone Leo would have pegged for a Carigan student.

“You're welcome. And you're lucky you have me here today.”

“Thanks, Thalia.” The blond glasses guy said.

“Frank and I saw him walking down the stairs, and followed him. We weren't exactly sure what he was planning on doing, and we had no idea more people were going to enter the house.” A girl said, with giant curly hair, and dark skin. She was cute, Leo perked up, smiling up at her. Of course his entire face was covered in Halloween paint, so maybe not the best first impression.

“Sup', what's your name?”

“No,” the big guy said flatly at the same time she said, “Hazel.”

“I say we electrocute him.” A tall pale skinny creepy ass blond guy said from the back of the crowd. He looked kind of like if Luke had an evil twin, but Leo had always thought that if Luke had a twin..Luke would be the evil one.

“Wow, rather you didn't.”

“There's going to be punishment for this! Retribution! This is war!” The dude was like a real life lemon grab.

A tan girl with braids shoved the guy out of the way. “Okay, that's a bit much, shut up Octavian. But, still, point stands. NU won't get away with this.”

The big guy, Frank apparently, glowered down at Leo. “We heard him on the walkie talkie. They video taped us. They'll be uploading it to their YouTube channel.”

“Literally why does anyone care?” A dark haired mopey looking kid in the back said.

“Shut up, Nico.” Said Lemon grab.

“Don't tell him to shut up!” Said about 6 people at once. Odd.

“I wonder though....” A sharp looking blonde girl said, hawk like eyes staring Leo down. Oh shit, Leo thought. This girl might be smarter than he was.

“It seems almost a little too much, doesn't it?” She asked, and Leo froze. It was time to think up a new plan. She already knew, it was obvious. Why did it come down to him to cover everyones asses, he hadn't even known about the stupid plan until tonight.

“What do you mean, Annabeth?”

“I mean...all of the NU colors, all of the statements, all of it. It seems almost _too_ much. Did you once hear them name their own fraternity? Did you see any faces, any familiar voices?” The lady, Annabeth spoke and everyone paid attention.

“Not to mention the NU fraternity and sorority have never worked together, yet many of the individuals involved tonight were female. And, given the NU fraternity is a football membership, I wouldn't except the amount of individuals we saw that were shorter and skinnier than your average quarterback, let alone linebacker.” Annabeth gave a long pointed stare in Leo's direction, the implication obvious. She didn't have to tell him twice, he knew he wasn't sports material.

“It seems to me, that maybe, they _want_  us to think it was NU. They want us to retaliate against NU. They want a war, but they don't want to be a part of it.”

“That....actually makes a lot of sense..” Voices around Leo turned to mumbles and theories.

“So, let me ask you, are you _really_ from NU?” Annabeth leaned down all close and person to Leo, and he really would rather the other girl, Hazel. Or the big guy. Or like, 5 other people in the room. His tastes were wide and varied.

“That's what I said, isn't it.” He agreed, and she smiled.

“Ah, an admission of guilt.” Leo shrugged.

“You can't blame a guy, or school, for trying...” Lying time was far from over, at this point he was just feeding her what she already believed, but he could tweak it just enough....

“Which school do you actually belong to?”

Leo made a point of looking conflicted, looking around the room, rolling his shoulders, swallowing hard.

“Look, I was the ring leader on this. We created the diversion, plotted out our escape paths in advance, then it was just a matter of getting in and turning off the power while you guys were spread out and confused.”

“Yeah, we saw. First hand.” Leo tried to fight back a smirk but when it threatened to fail, he looked down at the ground, hoping he'd look guilty not amused.

“Our school doesn't have as much money as yours or NU, I don't want the fall out to land on them...Our fraternity could be banned or...we could even get expelled, I can't let my brothers take the fall for something I planned. I'll accept your punishment, but please don't go after them, or blame them. You can report me, or whatever.”

“What do you think?” The Puerto Rican girl turned to Annabeth, Frank, and the blond guy. They seemed to be brightest here, and probably in charge of the Sorority and Fraternity.

“I respect the fact he's willing to take the blame.” Blond guy said, Frank looked less than convinced but didn't say anything.

“We do have a pretty long standing tradition for prank wars between schools, I don't think anyone has ever gotten expelled. That is definitely not the preferred outcome.”

“We can't just let them get away with it though,” Frank insisted. “It might be a joke, but the halls and carpets are all going to need to be cleaned, and don't get me started on what they did to the topiaries!”

“Dicks, so many dicks.” The punk rock girl in the back sighed, shaking her head. “No one ever carves shrubbery into a vagina.”

“What Thalia said!..Sort...of.” Frank faltered.

“How about, if they clean it all up, and replant the grass you burned, then we'll consider the toll even?” The cute girl, Hazel said, but it didn't look like everyone in the room agreed with her.

“Take a vote? All in favor?” A little over half the room grudgingly raised their hands. “Alright then.”

“Which school do you _actually_ go to?” Percy asked, raising an eyebrow.

“...Henderson. I go to Henderson, Alpha _Zeta_  Tau.” Leo sighed. Everyone in the room looked at each other, mouthing similar thoughts. The name sounded familiar but they weren't certain.

“We don't have any issue with Henderson,” Frank frowned. “Why us?”

“It's not us, is it?” Annabeth asked, to which Leo nodded.

“We're Lacrosse rivals with NU. If you started a prank war with NU, right before the season begins, they get spread thin. Some might even get suspended.”

“I see, so there's a much higher chance of you winning.” Annabeth reasoned, to which Leo nodded.

“I see. Interesting.”

“Look, can I go? You're not going to hold me all night are you?” Leo asked incredulously. They all exchanged glances.

“It's possible if we hold you here, your fraternity might come back to try and rescue you.”

“And then what?” Leo blinked. “You want us to clean everything _tonight_? It's like three am! That's impossible and you'd probably get a noise complaint, if you haven't already. Not to mention, they won't come from me. I was the ring leader, and I took the most dangerous job. If I was caught, they were ordered not to come for me.”

Frank shook his head, staring Leo down. “I don't like this.”

“I agree!” Lemon Grab said, causing Frank to look like he was going to change his mind on principle.

“As much as I hate to agree with Octavian, I do. I say we keep him trapped here.” A girl with caramel colored hair said, arms crossed.

“That's your answer to everything, Calypso. I've told you once, I've told you a million times, we can't kidnap people.” A frizzy redheaded girl looked exasperated. “Not after what happened last year.” The girl muttered, and no one said anything for a moment.

“Look, you can have my name, you can have my cellphone number. We're in the Alpha Zeta Tau house, obviously. I just kind of want to get out of this paint before it starts to make me break out. It's _very_ comedogenic. What am I going to do? Skip out on town to avoid cleaning up some broken egg and silly string? I've still got two years left to my diploma!”

“I suppose...we have to.” Annabeth sighed. “What's your name?”

“Juan,” Leo smiled. “Juan Gutierrez. Let me give you my number.”

Leo did _not_ attend Henderson University.

 

\---

 

After doing a bit of work to make sure he wasn't being followed, Leo finally arrived home, 3 hours later in the wee hours of the morning.

He was met with stares and silence. Most of his compatriots were in his apartment (why his apartment) again, watching and waiting. They were waiting to hear the news, that ΖΛΣ and ΕΘΦ had figured out who they were and that soon their crappy community college would soon become a war zone.

“It's fine guys, I got them off our tail.”

“How?” Jake asked, astounded.

“They figured out pretty quickly enough, smart cookie named Annabeth, that we weren't from NU.” Leo explained, which received concerned looks from some and shock from others.

“Annabeth Chase?” Luke and Clarisse asked nearly at the same time. Leo blinked.

“Um, maybe. Blonde, smart, scary.”

“Yeah,” Clarisse glared, “she went to our elementary school for a few years before her dad pulled her out to send her to some private school. She was in my grade but...”

“She was in all of _my_ classes.” Luke said, a number of years older than Clarisse. “If I had known Annabeth was going to be there, we'd have hit another building. So, what did you say?”

“I got them to believe my name was Juan, and I was part of a fraternity at Henderson and that we were trying to start a war to make sure NU's lacrosse front was lacking. Gave them the number to my burner phone that I was going to replace soon anyway.” Leo shrugged a shoulder, walking further into the room.

“That-....that's great, Leo, why do you have a burner phone again?” Will asked, and Leo waved a hand.

“You know, this and that.” He may or may not work for an auto mechanic who may or may not be completely on the up and up, and he may or may not end up from time to time transporting cars with who knows what stashed in them.

“No, more importantly, why didn't they turn you into a human pretzel?” Clarisse demanded, and Leo got the feeling she was actually kind of looking forward to seeing him getting his internal organs ripped out through his nose..

“I appealed to their basic humanity?”

“Cut the bullshit Valdez.”

“I'm _super_ cute.”

Nyssa stomped her foot, “Leo!”

“Okay, okay, jeez. I told them we'd clean up all the damage by hand. I'm also, like, super offended you don't think I'm cute enough to sweet talk my way out of punishment.” No one acknowledged the last part of his statement.

They exchanged looks, “there is no way we're cleaning their building.”

“ _Obviously_. They think I'm someone else, and that we go to a different school. They'll never know, and the only person they've ever seen is me. What's the likelihood I run into anyone from Carigan again?" His friends blinked, and Leo waved his hands. "Guys? Hello?! We're in the clear! Someone order a fucking pizza!”

 

\---

 

Frank didn't believe that Juan kid, didn't believe a word that came out of his mouth. Annabeth was smart, a genius, and she made equations her bitch, but she was wrong about this. Juan, if that was his name, was obviously smart, maybe not as smart as Annabeth but if Frank had to guess, Juan had a different type of intelligence.

She was calculating, he was chaotic.

The same day, a few hours later into the early morning hours, Frank took the time to call Henderson and check his suspicions.

“Hi, my name is Frank Zhang, I'd like to talk to someone in Alpha Zeta Tau?”

“ _Connecting.”_

“Th-...anks,” Frank said, but the voice turned to on-hold music before he had the chance.

“ _Hello, this is the_ _dorm supervisor.”_ It sounded like an older man, not a student, probably a teacher or a parent.

“Yeah, uh, hi. My name is Frank Zhang, I'd like to speak to Juan Gutierrez?”

“ _Gutierrez?”_ The man sounded confused.

“Yeah?”

“ _There isn't a Gutierrez here, kid.”_   Frank's expression dropped.

“Is that so...You don't have any students...Latino, about 162 to 167 centimetres? Er, rather, 5'4-5'6? Kind of a beanpole?” Frank asked, voice serious.

“ _No, pretty sure. Even if we did, it wouldn't matter, everyone in this house is on the basketball team, and they're out of state right now.”_

“Is that so...” Frank tapped his finger on the tile surface of the sink. “See, I'm from Carigan, Zeta, and we got hit last night, and one of the boys blamed your school.”

“ _What?! Look, there is no way any of my boys did it, you can check for yourself; they were on the news at 8.”_ Frank pinched the bridge of his nose, it made sense now. Juan must have seen them on the news, and used them as an easy out.

“You wouldn't happen to know what NU is doing right now?” Frank asked, not knowing where else the kid could have come from.

“ _The frat? They're out of town too. They went to OU for a pre-season party.”_

“Great, thanks.” Frank hung up after saying good day, but he wasn't done yet. He punched in the number that 'Juan' had given them, when they tested it last night, it was indeed the phone on Juan's person. But, Frank had a sneaking suspicion...

Ring...ring....ring...

“ _I'm sorry the number you're trying to reach is no longer in service. Goodbye.”_

“Damn it.” Frank groaned, raking a hand down his face. Whoever they were, they got them good.

“Something wrong?” Frank looked up to see Annabeth, followed by Percy and Hazel.

“Oh, you could say that.” Annabeth frowned.

“The more I thought about it, something felt wrong about last night. I'm not sure what, but...The more I think about it....” She shook her head. “It's probably nothing.”

“It's definitely not nothing.” Frank sighed, drawing their attention. “I called Henderson. They're out of state, and NU is out of town. There _is_ no Juan Gutierrez.”

“What?” Percy exclaimed, eyes wide.

“But, the phone number...” Hazel trailed off when Frank shook his head to the negative.

“It was disconnected.”

“Oh!” Annabeth gasped. “That's right! I should have remembered Henderson was out of state...”

“You saw them on the news yesterday?”

“No of course not, I don't watch basketball. But Percy does, I printed out this seasons preliminary schedule a few months ago.”

“Annabeth, literally no one is going to blame you that you didn't remember the date and town a college basketball team was playing in months after the fact...”

“Still,” she looked sheepish.

“So all we have is his...general appearance to go off?” Percy asked slowly.

“Yeah, good luck finding a 20-something year old Latino kid within all the colleges in the state. Not to mention he had makeup on.”

“Well,” Hazel paused. “He had kind of...elf-like ears. Pointy. That can't be that common?”

“Maybe not, but what are we supposed to do? Make a bulletin board looking for a Mexican keebler elf at every single school? I doubt the school responsible would turn him over, even if they knew.”

“So..........we lost?” Percy said darkly, staring at the ground.

“We lost.” Annabeth confirmed. “For now.”

“For now?”

“It might not work, but...I have an idea. They got away with it once, there is a pretty good chance they'll try it again. Even higher if we challenge them ourselves...”

Frank smiled, “he-...they'll get cocky.”

“They'll make a mistake. No matter how brilliant, they'll slip up.”

 

–

 

Leo groaned, waking up unhappily on the floor. 5 other people were within kicking distance and Jake's leg was haphazardly thrown over Leo's torso, along with a slice of pizza. Leo tried to slide out from under the pile of drunken friends, and turned to come face to face to a pair of eyes.

“Leo, get up.” Leo screamed, grabbing at his chest.

“Lou, what the fuck?”

“They responded.”

“What?”

“Zeta. They responded. They're calling us out. Or, they're calling _you_ out.”

Leo shoved Jake, Chris and Clarisse out of the way, and lept over at least one Stroll to follow Lou Ellen to the computer.

Will, Katie, and Gwen stood in front of a computer, a video loaded on the screen.

“Enjoy,” Lou Ellen said, hitting the play. Both ΖΛΣ and ΕΘΦ members that Leo had seen last night came into focus.

“ _Now, I have to apologize for the cryptic nature of this video to anyone who isn't aware...but that is the nature of the game_.” Blond Glasses said, in the front.

“ _Jason is right, look, this is being directed at a certain group...a certain person. You know who you are_.”

“ _I'll admit, you pulled the wool over our eyes_ ,” Annabeth said. “ _I made a mistake, I'll give you that. I'll even applaud you for that, not many people could do that_.”

“ _But we caught on_.” Frank announced, glaring at the screen.

“Too late,” Leo whispered, with a bit smile.

“ _Admittedly, too late_.” Annabeth said, like she could read Leo's mind.

“ _So, I think it's time to raise the stakes._ ” Percy grinned. “ _You got us once, you got away scot-free! But, can you do it again?_ ”

“ _We propose that you, and your friends, try and hit us again. If you manage to do so, and get away, we'll concede defeat and you'll be given a reward_.” Hazel said, Leo was happy to see her again.

“ _What reward you might ask? Well, my name is Piper McLean. Daughter of Tristan McLean. I can get you on set of a movie. In Greece_.”

“ _Just hit us again, bigger and badder, and don't get caught. That's all_.”

 

The video stopped there, leaving Leo and the group behind him staring at the screen. Until Leo burst out laughing, and Lou Ellen joined him, leaving the rest to look confused.

“What's with you?” Will asked, confused.

“The're...oh god, they're trying to look so composed!” Leo gasped, and Lou Ellen nodded.

“Oh god, they're so stupid. So stupid. They're desperate to find out who we are! This isn't a prank war! They're trying to bait us!” Lou said between laughs.

“How dumb do they think we are?” Leo howled “ _Oooh_ yeah, I'm going to risk jail time and expulsion to go to _Greece_. Next stop, Egypt, or another country thats economy is in the shitter and just _loves_ Americans!.” He paused. “Who the fuck do they think even has a passport?”

“Oh my god,” Lou giggled. “Oh my god, I didn't even think about needing a passport! Those things cost like a hundred bucks and take like 9 months to get here.”

“Why not just have a baby, right?!” The two devolved into further howls of laughter.

 

“I say we do it.”

Leo and group turned to see Luke and the Strolls behind them, looking very serious.

“I'm not having a baby, Luke.”  
  
“Lou, not that part.”  
  
"I'm not either, Luke."  
  
"Shut the fuck up, Leo, goddamn."

“You're crazy!” Will yelped. Luke shook his head.

“No, this is our chance. Don't you see? This is our chance to make something of our school.”

“Fuck the school, who gives a fuck about the school?” Leo asked, astounded.

“Exactly! That's it exactly Leo! No one cares! No one knows us. Let's face fact, the majority of us will end up in dead end jobs, in shitty towns, working for the people over at Carigan.”

“We'll be working even worse jobs when we get expelled.” Lou Ellen said flatly.

“Then we go to another school. We don't have any loyalties to this place, right? Fuck the school. BUT, on the off chance we actually pull this off, and win, then we can come out about it. It will be a source of pride, we could be interviewed. It'll make headlines if a school like ours manages to out smart a school like theirs.”

“He....has a point.” Katie said slowly. “The video we uploaded to NU's account, it was taken down, but it's already being reposted. Everyone knows it wasn't NU, and it wasn't Henderson...it's basically already trending. It's not huge yet, but among universities...it's getting some attention.”

“We're the underdogs and everyone loves an underdog.” Travis said.

Leo paused, shaking his head. “Do you think we can? They'll be on guard now. Luke, you said so yourself, if you knew Annabeth was there...”

“Yes, and you outsmarted her....no, you out maneuvered her. She's smarter, but you're all over the place, she can't keep up. She's like one of those robots that you give a logical paradox and it stops working for a minute. ”

“Oh, like, 'this statement is false'?” Gwen asked eagerly, and everyone stared. “What?”  
  
"Okay," Luke shook his head. "She's a master chess player, and you're the person who lights the board on fire then."

“I don't know about this...” Leo sighed. “It seems like there are more risks than rewards right now...”

“Leo, you have the chance to impress one of them. You have the chance here to get in the pants of a Carigan student.”  
  
“Fuck it, I'm in.”

“Okay, awesome, let's talk terms. You might need to be our go between...”

 


	2. B

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> mystery and intrigue abound, meanwhile robot fights ruin a local schools economy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can skip this if need be, but if anything is confusing here have this helpful badly written guide.
> 
> For anyone who isn't familiar with the American system,..basically a community college offers a 2 year associates degree or 60-90 credits ( and usually offers techincal training) and then if need be you can transfer to a college or university to complete your 4 year or 120-140 credits for a bachelors degree, and if you want a masters degree, doctorate or whathaveyou/othergraduateprograms then (if you're at a college) you have to go to a university. 
> 
> Leo and lot are at a community college/technical school, they're all there until they complete their required amount of credits, where as the students at Carigan are at a University so they can stay at that school throughout graduate programs.   
> The students at Carigan are paying roughly 60k a year, and the Fyfe students are paying around 4-10k a year and many are primarily covered via financial aide. (books still cost a shit ton regardless of your school of choice.)

\---

“Look who I found at the front door.” Jason called, walking into the living room with one so called  _Juan Gutierrez_ in tow. Everyone stood or sat up immediately.

“Hi there. I'm here to talk terms.” Leo grinned.

“How do we know this isn't part of a plot?” Reyna asked, leaning over to Annabeth.

“Our guards should take care of it, if it is.”

“I've been caught once, I don't plan on being caught again. Trust me on that, big guy nearly pulled my arm out of my socket last time.” Leo grumbled.

“That was me, actually. Sorry. I take krav maga.” Hazel said, and Leo's face brightened remarkably.

“Not a problem. Didn't hurt at all actually, super gentle. So what's up with you?”

“So, terms?” Frank growled, pushing the man away.

“Right, well, we've been promised a Greek vacation, which sounds lovely with the riots and protests and all, but that isn't really enough to guarantee our involvement.”

“You want more?” Percy asked incredulously.

“Yeah, well, see the thing is you have no idea who I am. And, in addition, our video is sort of making rounds, and you're _sort of_ becoming the laughing stock of the country. To defend your title, you _need_ us, isn't that right?” Leo asked, turning to Annabeth, who he guessed was the brains behind the plan.

“You're not wrong.” She admitted.

“My motivations are more purely revenge based, and less school based though.” Frank said, which caused Leo to look mildly shocked.

“That's ….terrifying. You're like 8'7. My point remains though.”

“6'7,” Frank muttered, as it if mattered.

“What do you want if you win?” Piper asked, curious what could be better than what they were already offering. It would take some strings pulling to get her father to agree to letting the others on set in Greece. Well, not her father so much as her fathers assistants.

“We want you to admit, _publicly_ , that we bested you. We want a trophy, hailing the fact we bested you. We want news coverage that we bested you. We want it in your own newspaper. We want it in _every_ news paper in every college you can possibly manage.”

They exchanged looks.

“In this scenario, I'm guessing your intention is to reveal your school only if you win.”

“Correct.”

“Interesting....” Annabeth said slowly. Leo's jaw clenched, this was the tricky part. Given what Luke and Clarisse had told Leo about Annabeth in their before-hand briefing...There was an extremely high risk of her figuring out their school, but the hope was that accepting their challenge would prevent them from being reported or striking back just yet.

“We'll still take the Greek vacation though, don't get me wrong.”

“Of course. You want a signed contract, I'm guessing?”

“Damn right.”

“Can I ask what your real name is?” Hazel piped in, leaning closer. She smelled like pumpkin spice and it made Leo want to cry.

“Sorry, no can do. Not yet.”

“I want a clause.” Frank announced. “Win or lose, we get your name. Even if we don't discover your school.”

“Sure, why not.” Leo shrugged, just relieved he didn't ask for Leo's head. There was a chance Frank himself might want retaliation but Leo was fairly confident in his ability to avoid anything, including pesky emotions. “We have a deal then?”

“We have a deal.” Reyna agreed, signing off as well. Leo realized she was likely the head of the sorority, though he had expected Annabeth to be. Neither was really what Leo was expecting from a sorority.

“Do we have a time limit?” Leo asked, curious, he figured they wouldn't want them to wait 2 years before acting.

“How about, by the end of the term? You've got 8 weeks left.”

Leo grinned, “perfect.”

 

\---

 

“Why do I feel like we've already lost?” Percy mused, over left over Chinese food.

“Because the ball is in their court, our burden is protecting the house, but when the time comes it'll be chaotic. They might fail at creating as much of a problem for us as they want, but there's still a possibility that they could get out of our grasp and win. And, as we've seen, they do well in chaotic environments.”

“I almost want them to win,” Hazel admitted, to glares around the table. “They seem fun, is all. NU took everything so seriously. I don't know, the style of their first prank just seemed...like it would have been cool to be a part of.”

“I kind of agree.” Jason took a swig of milk. “Even if they lose, maybe instead of punishing them, we could team up.”

“You're kidding.” Frank looked taken back.

“Just because you don't like Juan, Frank, doesn't mean they're wrong.” Piper teased. “Or, whatever his name is.”

“While they definitely deserve some form of punishment if they lose, I'm also in agreement. They could make powerful partners, given how strong of enemies they've shown themselves to be...I must admit I over looked their school in my initial calculations, which was short sighted of me.”   
  
Annabeth sighed, curling a noodle around her chopstick. Everyone was in a general agreement that in a past life Annabeth was probably a General of some sort.

“Wait...what school?” Percy paused, and Annabeth froze.

“Oh my god, you figured out what school they're from didn't you?!”

“Look, I want to play this fair and square. We set the rules, if I tell you, and anyone decides to hit them first, then the plan collapses. And, if it becomes public knowledge of which school they're from before hand, and they lose, then it could reflect back on them even worse. I still do not want anyone to get expelled.”

“We won't! Promise. You can trust us can't you?”

It wasn't the full fraternity and sorority houses, it was just her best friends around the table together. Annabeth knew she couldn't trust someone like Octavian, but these people...  
She sighed.

“I think he knew by coming here I'd figure it out, it was his terms that tipped me off. That's why they wanted a contract.”

“His terms?”

“They want prestige for their school, recognition of their abilities being as good if not better than our own. There is really only one school near by that that would make sense for, given everything else.”

Everyone had questioning looks on their face; even Nico, Bianca, and Thalia looked interested, and they were not part of their fraternity or sorority.

“Fyfe Community College and Technical School.”

“Fy-...you mean that run down terrible school on the other end of town?” Percy asked, astounded.

“Exactly. What other school would be unknown to us, but carry enough of a grudge against us to plan something like this, then ask essentially for respect in return? A school, a poor school, in the shadow of one of the most famous schools...one of the wealthiest schools in the country.”

“Well, now I feel kind of bad...” Percy mumbled, he would have ended up in a school like that if his biological father hadn't popped out of nowhere to pay for his education.  
Hazel nodded, she had a similar story of an estranged, but extremely wealthy father. Though she was never particularly bad off, her and her mother hadn't always been well respected either...a normal state school would have been her future if not for her father, and maybe not even that.

“Makes sense,” Frank grudgingly agreed.

“I'd probably prank us too, if I were them.” Jason said. 

“Surprising it took this long, really.” Piper hummed, she had her own history of pranks and theft that were often overlooked on account of her family.

“It doesn't change anything though, in fact it reaffirms our stance.” Reyna said. “We give it our all, if they best us, then they know for a fact they won fair and square. They can claim their title honestly. If they lose...then, they'll probably still be more respected than they were originally.”

“Unless they get expelled and lose their diplomas,” Nico offered, a neutral party on the matter.

“I think we can make sure that doesn't happen, if it comes to that.” Hazel said and it was a threat of a bribe, but she didn't really care about spending her fathers money if it meant protecting..mostly innocent parties..

“I kind of wish we knew who they were before hand though, but I guess that'd ruin some of the surprise. They got away without being seen last time, I’m sure they'll use that anonymity to their advantage.” Frank said.

“I'm sure whatever they've got planned, will be something we've never seen before.”

 

–

 

“Well, I'm completely the fuck out of ideas, how about you?”

“I've got nothing! Nothing! What's wrong with me?”

“What's wrong with _you_? What's wrong with me?! I fell asleep on a stack of layouts and now I have LEFT CORRIDOR stamped onto my goddamn face!”

“Calm down!” Gwen bellowed, shocking everyone into silence.

“You've all been running around like headless chickens! Think about the problem logically! Take it step by step! Plot out an entrance and exit strategy, identify risks! This isn't that hard!”

“We....need to do recon.” Lou Ellen said after a moment, hair askew. “Right, we need to do recon and see what sort of outwardly defenses they have set up.”

“Blue prints, we'll need to know the lay out of the building, and the campus itself.” Luke sighed, disassembling his totem of toothpicks.

“We should psych them out. Annabeth will be more vulnerable that way, if she's worn down.” Clarisse grumbled, pinching Chris awake.

“If you guys handle that, I think _I_ can handle the psych out portion.” Leo leaned back in his office chair, strumming his fingers and grinning, before the chair gave out and he toppled to the floor.

 

\---

 

“ _Boy_ , that was a good class, wasn't it my fellow student friends?”

Frank, Hazel and Percy turned to see Leo standing in the hallway outside their lecture room.

“Wh-what are you doing here. Has it started?” Percy yelped, yanking out his cellphone and calling Annabeth. He was on point like a terrier, and looked absolutely ready to throw down.

“It hasn't started, jeez, it's been like a week. We're good, but not that good, right, Frankie?” Leo grinned, throwing back Frank's words at him. Frank scowled, but said nothing.

“Why are you here?” Hazel asked, taking a step forward, and if Leo had been a dog his tail would have started wagging.

“Just saying hello, wishing your school good luck and all that! And what a school! Have you seen your own library? It's got more than one story, and the textbooks aren't from 1987. Remarkable.”

Percy put down his phone, “we're on high alert buddy. I don't know if you're trying to distract us or not, but it won't work.”

“Actually, it's already working. Ciao, I'm off to check out your swimming pools.” Leo said cryptically, before waving and walking out of the building.

“I hate him!” Frank stamped a foot. “I hate him so much.”

“I think he's nice. Whatever his name is.”

Percy sighed, “Hazel, that might be _why_ Frank hates him.”

 

\----

 

The next day, Jason and Piper reported seeing Leo as well. And the day after that, other Zeta members did. He showed up in the debate hall to derail Octavian, he showed up in the culinary arts department which caused Calypso's souffle to sadly fail, he even showed up in the arts department to talk modern nouveau with Rachel.

He was everywhere.

“He's like a rat.” Octavian hissed.

“Please stop making me agree with you,” Frank groaned. “This is why I hate him, he makes me see eye to eye with Octavian.”

“Yeah, yeah, invite me to your wedding.” Thalia rolled her eyes. “This is just a tactic. And, they're actually succeeding.”

“What do you mean?” Jason asked, his sister was into all sorts of survival camps and war games type thing, so if they were going to listen to anyone...Thalia would be a good person to ask. The problem being she had no fond feelings towards Carigan, or fraternities.

“He, they, are wearing you down. They're psyching you out, man. It's like..one of the oldest tricks in the book.”

“He's constantly got us on high alert,” Annabeth conceded, looking tired. “When the actual strike happens we'll be less prepared. We'll either be too run down to handle it, or we'll write off the initial signs and end up accidentally complacent.”

“We need to fight back, then” Piper said simply.

“We can't strike back.” Annabeth shook her head.

“But,” Hazel started slowly. “Two can play the game he's playing. We need to psych them out.”

“We don't even know who they are.” Silena complained, a few others nodding.

Frank exchanged a look with Hazel. They knew who one of them was, or rather, where they were.

 

\---

 

“Hi there.”

Leo yelped, and spun around, holding a hand to his chest. Who he saw didn't really help alleviate that stress.

“Hazel....and Frank.” Leo looked between the two, unhappily crossing his arms. “In my school.”

“Yes, in _your_ school, _Leo Valdez_.” Hazel teased, and Frank looked extremely proud. “Funny how that happens, isn't it?”

“Leo Valdez, not Juan Gutierrez.” Frank repeated. “You can't hide under that name anymore.”

“I figured this would happen, actually” Leo sighed. tossing a dirty rag onto the table. 

Leo paused. “I figured you'd find it out, that is, not that you'd accost me in shop class. That Annabeth, she's smart.”

“So are you, wearing us thin like you've been.”

“That was the plan. Well, pre-plan.”

“We're wise to it now, it won't work.” Frank said sternly, but didn't like the smile that graced the shorter guys face.

“That's fine.”

“It-...it is?”

“Yup.” Leo popped the P, walking over to the sink to wash grease and grime off of his hands. Hazel and Frank followed him like ducklings.

“...Why?”

“Can't say, you'll find out sooner or later.” Frank's ears turned red.

What Leo wasn't going to say was that he was simply a distraction, a ruse to psych them out, so they'd all be less likely to notice individuals who _weren't_ Carigan students checking out the campus mid-day. They had gotten some pretty good intel so far, all because of a fairly simple bait and switch strategy. They'd become so hyper focused on Leo popping up everywhere, they weren't noticing everyone in the background.

“You've got quite the reputation, Leo.” Hazel said with a smile. Leo smiled back before he noticed the glint in her eyes was a bit less than friendly. He wouldn't have guessed she had as much of a competitive streak as she now seemed to.

“You know, when we got here and asked 'is there anyone in school that's short...curly haired...Latino...pointy ears'. Everyone said, 'Leo'.”   
He wasn't shocked by that.

“The thing that did surprise me though, was _how_ they said your name. You're not...entirely well liked are you?” Leo said nothing, just shrugged a shoulder. He had a bit of a reputation.

“ Contrary to what Annabeth thinks...I have a hard time believing you're in charge, or the mastermind behind any of this. You're smart, but how involved does anyone actually want you? Why were you the one picking locks, and not with your....friends? Maybe they didn't want you with them? I wonder why.”

Because he was always working? Or, because a lot of the time when it wasn't about something he wanted to do, he didn't give the guys the time of day? He'd hold himself up in his room, and barely see anyone for days.

It was no surprise, not really.

“Well, we'll be going now, _Leo_. Have a good day.” Hazel smiled while Leo continued to keep his mouth shut. Frank looked like he was about ready to get down on one knee and pop the question to his girlfriend.

Just as the door was about the close, Leo called out.

“You're right. I'm not the mastermind. But some of the people behind this know Annabeth. They know how she thinks. You've got me, but you've still got none of them. And, deep down, you've still barely got me nailed down. If talking to anyone taught you anything about me, you already know that. You've moved up a few spaces, but you're still 5 moves behind.”

Hazel kept eye contact with Leo, before nodding curtly. The girl was brutal, he loved her.

 

–

 

“He said some of the people behind this were people that know you, Annabeth.” Frank said, causing some alarm around the room.

“Know me?”

“Yes, and it's unlikely he's the ringleader like we believed. He is an engineer, and he's crafty, that might be the only reason they have him on board.”

“Might be the reason they're allowing us to see his face too, if there's any negative fall out, we'd be more likely to go after him first.” Reyna agreed.

“That's kind of sad,” Piper frowned. “He seems like good people. I mean, Jason and I hung out with him for like an hour. Went out for sandwiches.”

“Seriously? You're mingling with the enemy?” Percy glared accusingly.

“Again, Percy, not a cop movie.” Jason sighed.

“Either way, from what you said, they seem confident that they're a number of steps ahead of us which is concerning. I would be willing to be it isn't simply ego. Of course, they might not know everything we have in store for them, but still.”

“I'm kind of more concerned about the whole, they somehow know who you are, Annabeth.” Grover said between bites of a tofu sandwich. “This could be personal against you.”

“It could be, but I don't recall having....that many enemies.”

“I don't know, Spelling B kids can be pretty b-r-u-t-a-l.”

“Nico, no.”

 

\---

 

“Hey, Nyssa?” Leo knocked on her bedroom door, but opened it before she responded anyway, a terrible habit he had.

“Yeah?” She called, sitting on her bed, with papers scattered around her, half homework, half plan related.

“Are we friends?” Nyssa looked up, confused.

“Of course we are? We've known each other for like 10 years. The only time we weren't almost friends was that brief, ' _not all men_ ,' phase you had in junior high.”  
Leo flushed slightly, that hadn't been the most amazing chapter of Valdez history.

“I burned that shirt, Nyssa, you know that. I burned it to ashes.”

“I know,” she laughed. “What is this about anyway?”

“I was just wondering why you guys left me out of the plan for so long...And, it may have come to my attention that a good portion of the school doesn't like me.”

“The school doesn't like you because you got the school intercom to play nothing but ABBA for a month.”

“Point taken. But, in all fairness, Gimme Gimme Gimme is an amazing song.”

“And you ruined the soccer field with those remote control robot fights.”

“Again, point taken. But, who doesn't like robots?”

“You programmed a drone to drop water balloons full of green food coloring on anyone not wearing green on St. Patrick's day while you yourself were not dressed in any green, because you...and I quote, 'don't want to look like a Mexican leprechaun,' end quote.”

“Okay, I get it, it's weird I haven't been expelled yet, I understand this.”

“ _We_ do like you, though. Is it really any wonder why we were waiting Leo? Why we hesitated? We didn't want you to get in trouble. Before you found out, we were planning on having Mitchel do your job.”

“I don't understand _why_ though. Why is it just me that you're worried about ending up in trouble?”

“There's a reason you haven't been expelled Leo. We're good at what we do, but you're one of the most talented engineers I've ever seen. Because you're one of the few people at this school that's probably going to go somewhere amazing. You're going to end up at NASA or MIT or CERN or something. We didn't want anything to ruin the chances of you becoming the next Steve Jobs.”

Leo didn't say anything for a minute, before sitting down on the end of Nyssa's bed to give her an awkward side hug.

“Steve Jobs was a dick though. I'd rather be with you guys. Thanks though. But, you know, where ever I go, I'd take you guys with me.”

“You better. I know I'm as good as any of the people at Carigan. It pisses me off that we're viewed as...the lesser, just because we didn't have someone to buy our way into a fancy school.” Nyssa huffed, rearranging her pile of homework from her own full schedule.

“If it makes any difference, I think some of them agree...I talked to a few, a Jason Grace and Piper McLean, you know the actors kid? They're pretty down to earth. If things were different, who knows.”

“Maybe we'd be friends?”

“Maybe.”

“You're not just doing this to get in their pants are you?” Nyssa asked, turning to look him in the eye.

“No,” he shook his head. “I want in-- to a good university. Fyfe is fine, but their equipment can't take me where I want to go, and the most I can get is an associates degree.” He _was_ aiming for NASA. “Admittedly, getting a sugar mama or daddy to pay all my textbook and class costs is very appealing.”

“You deserve it.”

“We all do- oh you meant the university thing, yeah no that too, we all do.”

The door slammed open, and a manic looking Travis ran in.

“We found something amazing!” And then he ran out.

“Well, okay then...”

"Does no one knock anymore?” Nyssa glared.

 

\----

 

“Look at this,” Luke pointed at a blueprint of the building. “Do you see what I see?”

“Blue paper.”

“Dakota, no.”

“A cellar?” Leo asked, looking at the plans. “The building has a cellar? So what?”

“Not a cellar, a pathway! Underground!”

“Again I say, so what? Even if they do, even if we could reach it somehow, do you think Annabeth isn't going to have their biggest weak spot under lock down?”

“They won't though, that's the beautiful thing.”

“I found this in the state national library, when I went back home last weekend to see my folks.” Will said. “There haven't been any other check outs on it in over a year.”

“So?”

“This is the oldest version of this blueprint we've found, it's the _only_ one to list this passage way.”

Leo hummed, leaning back. “You're saying there's a chance they don't know it even exists? Wouldn't they notice a door?”

“I think it's probably more like an access panel. This school is old enough, they used this passage to transport coal originally. This was for carts, not people to walk through. I'd bet by now it's bolted up, and ignored. It's not electrically important, so no one would have had a reason to inspect it.”

“If it was for transporting coal, why wouldn't it still exist on future blueprints?”

“My best guess is it didn't work well, maybe fumes built up, or maybe there was a partial tunnel collapse.”

“Okay, let me get this straight. You're suggesting one of us, me or Mitchel since we're the smallest, climb down a 200 year old mine cart shaft that may or may not have been closed down due to safety concerns in the days when people thought child slave labor was perfectly acceptable?”

“Yes.”

“Not it!” Mitchel called, and Leo sent him a betrayed look.

“I'm claustrophobic.” Leo whined.

“You're absofuckinglutely not.” Jake snorted.

“I'm I-don't-want-to-die-in-the-ground-phobic.”

“This is our shot, Leo! This is our opportunity to win, once and for all! And, most importantly, whoever decides to go, will be the one delivering the finishing blow!”

“That's a lot riding on one person!”

“Think of who _you_ can be riding after all of this is said and done!”

“Oh my god, my life outweighs my dick, Luke!” Luke stared. “It does!..........not by a lot, but it does!”

“Look, Leo, we're proposing we just check out the shaft, stop giggling, and then see where to go from there. If it looks safe, and it goes where it says it goes, then we make plans accordingly. If not, then we make a new plan.” Lou Ellen explained. Leo sighed, before nodding.

“Fine....fine. But I’m bringing bug spray.”

“Again, probably not a good idea until we figure out if the whole thing is full of flammable gas or something.”

“I hate all of you.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes I worry if the amount I write about Leo reflects onto my personality. I don't worry for long because I become very quickly distracted.


	3. C

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leo makes a new friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I went into a daycare for a few moments, a few deep breaths, I shook a hand, I barely existed within the building- and I immediately came down with strep throat.   
> So, I'm sick as dicks and decided on working on a new chapter, but my brain is so fucking foggy I can't bring myself to write anything new and good...so I'm just...fixing this chapter I was planning on putting up.

  
  
  


 

The next weekend Leo found himself fitted in a clean jumpsuit, knee-pads, a gas mask, headset, and a utility belt around his waist. He was ready to take on the shaft, double entendre very much implied.  
  
They were in the middle of the woods on the outskirts of the campus. There was a line of trees, a hedgerow, and about 150 feet between them and the Fraternity house. They were completely out of sight, and approached from the outside of the college, not to mention no one knew any of them besides Leo, and since Leo was laying down in the back of the van they arrived in, no one would have noticed Leo either.

“Okay there should be a hatch just about- ah ha! Metal! Here it is!” Will announced, knocking on the forest floor with a stick and getting a clunk instead of a thud.

There was a hatch with an ancient deadbolt on it, covered by moss and dirt, but the fact remained, it was in fact there. 

Leo was kind of hoping the blue prints of the campus had been wrong. It wasn't going to be a fun trip.  
  
They made quick work of the lock, and greased up the hinges to open the doors as quietly as possible. The entrance was at an angle, it was likely that back in the day someone would have rode up, dumped a load of coal down, and someone at the bottom would then have loaded it into a minecart before rolling it to the main building.  
Originally the roads in the area were harsh, and the campus wasn't built for horse drawn carriages; the school was small enough, all the teachers and a good portion of students had been housed in what was now the current Zeta Alpha house. This had, at one time, been a small path off of the main road in the area, that would allow for them to transport important coal to the facility with relative ease and without disrupting the atmosphere of the campus.

Leo wasn't thinking about all of that, he was thinking about grabbing the massive stick from Will to knock down the multitude of cobwebs, and hope he didn't get bit by a black widow while down there.

“Looks to be in good condition.” Leo shot Beckendorf a bad look, his roommate shrugged and looked unapologetic.

“Okay, so head on in, get to the end if you can, and then take pictures if you reach it. If this works we can get in and out of their building without them ever knowing how or ever seeing us.”

“I don't understand why Mitchel isn't doing this.” Leo grumbled, arranging all of his supplies and pulling on the gas mask. It wasn't comfortable, they worked by making a tight seal on the face to make sure no toxic anything got in thereby negating the whole having a gas mask in the first place thing. Nyssa snapped a picture of his appearance, hair tufting out the sides of the straps, cheeks smushed and pushed and now red with irritation. Leo wasn't model quality on a good day- surely, it made a _real_ pretty picture.

“Because I have like, 3 on and off again boyfriends right now that would miss me if I died. When was the last time you got laid, Leo? Was it Khion-”

“Don't mention the she-beast!” Leo yelled, pointing a finger at Mitchel.

“Wait, was it Narcissus? Did that happen before or after?”

“Nah...He didn't sleep with him, he just gave him a handy while he stole his iPhone. It's still been like... a year or better?” Jake appeared to be counting on his fingers.

Leo pulled on the mask so he could speak easier. “No shame. I feel no shame about that. I didn't see a certain _someone_ complaining when they got an iPhone for Christmas either. And, you know ..shut up. My sex life-"  
  
"Or lack of-"  
  
"-is of no ones concern but Joel's and my own!” Leo yelled over his traitorous 'friends'.

“Who the fuck is Joel?” Clarisse asked with a sneer.   
  
“It's what I named my dick. Okay, who wants to drop me down into a pit of despair?”

 

–

 

The coal shaft wasn't tall enough to stand up in, but crouching worked well enough, and it seemed to be wider than it was tall, with two tracks on the ground, as well rusted as they happened to be. There were a few puddles of water on the ground where the roof was leaking, but there didn't seem to be any signs of a cave in for as far as Leo could see. Though that didn't account for much, the place had a gradual slope to it, and though the distance wasn't far, Leo couldn't see the end.

At least there were less spiders than he would have expected.

“ _How's it look down there?_ ”

“It's a fucking dirt hole in the ground, what do you expect? It's seen better days, but it isn't horrible.” Leo's speech came out sounding more distant and garbled than he would have liked, but he wasn't taking off his gas mask.

“ _No collapses? It's structurally sound?_ ” Leo swung around his flashlight some more.

“I'm not about to go running and jumping, banging on pots and pans, but yeah, I think it'll hold.”

“ _Great, carry on then, it should only take you a few minutes to reach Zeta House_.”

“Rodger that.”

So Leo kept walking, it was a fairly boring thing really. Dirt, dirt, beams, beams, dirt, beam, rail, coal, human skull, dirt, bea- wait, what?

Sure enough, when Leo fixed his headlight on the earth, there was a partial skull in the dirt, along with other pale bones sticking out of the ground.

“Um, guys.”

“ _What? Was there a collapse?_ ”

“I mean, of a kind? I'm sure they at one point did collapse.”

“ _What?_ ”

“There's a dead person in here.”

Pause.

“ _Okay, Leo, I think you should turn around and come back, okay? There might have been a gas pocket, because you're starting to see things._ ” Will said calmly, in his best nurse voice.

Leo rolled his eyes, and pulled out his phone and took a picture, and sent it.

Pause

“ _Holy shit! Is it real?!_ ”

Leo knelt down beside the skull, shrugging. “I don't know. Looks pretty real. Looks old too. Ask a Paleontologist.”

“ _Take another picture of the nose, close up._ ” Gwen asked.

“Sure thing,” Leo took and sent another picture. “Gross,” Leo muttered, standing back up and backing away again.

“ _It's definitely real._ ” Gwen said.

“How can you know for certain?”

“ _One of my part time jobs was working in a museum, and we had to rearrange their specimens from time to time. I got pretty good at telling a real skull apart from an anatomical dummy. The teeth and the bones in the nose cavity...That's no dummy. Trust me, I know dead people._ ”

“ _I think Gwen is right,_ ” Will said. “ _We don't get many ..unfleshed people at the hospital, but I've seen a handful, especially when the Forensic Anthropologist students come by..._ ”

“Cool. Anyway, I'm heading to Zeta.” Leo stood up and brushed off his hands, ignoring the small voice in the back of his head.

“ _Wait, wait, wait. You're not curious? What about the skeleton?!_ ”

“Look," Leo started with a sigh, glancing at the skull, "we can deal with it later _but_ if we report it now, here, we'll be all over the news. Everyone will know, know about us, and know this passage is here. It's been dead for at least a few years, People can wait a couple weeks.”

“. _..That's pretty cold, Leo._ ”

“Oh, I'm sorry, are you the person in the creepy mineshaft that's probably haunted because it's got a _literal_ dead person in it? No?" Leo feigned, motioning his arms around as if there was an actual audience to view his over dramatic performance. No one said anything back. "Right, I'm getting this over with.” 

When he was a child, around 6 years old, Leo did what other kids did and played in a local park with some other classmates on the weekend. He wasn't hugely outgoing, but someone invited him and he went after his mother encouraged him to. The other kids moved from the park, to under a long dry gully while playing. This was Houston, when it rained it poured, but the rest of the time they were lucky if they saw any water. There was a man there, old, he looked kind of like Leo's grandfather, but this man was homeless; and, this man was dead.   
One of the other kids yelled and ran away, a brother and sister began to cry for their parents. Leo said nothing, just went blank until one of the other parents drove him home and told his mom what had happened. Esperanza hugged him close, and whispered that it was alright, that everything was okay. Leo then had been confused more than he was scared; how had the man died? What went wrong? How fragile were people anyway? Why couldn't they just fix the man? Why were humans so complicated? Why were the other kids so scared, so sad? He didn't understand.  
  
Leo looked at the skull once more before shrugging a shoulder and moving on. It was still unnerving, but maybe not for the usual reasons.

It took a few more minutes to reach the eventual end of the track, but Leo was on the look out for anything else underworld-y for the entire time. There didn't seem to be any more new dead people, which was the good part, but didn't change he'd have to go out past the first dead person all over again.   
And then rinse and repeat if their plan was put into action.

But, he put that in the back of his mind to examine the wall in front of him, one that hopefully opened up into the boiler room that Leo had previously been in.

“Good news guys, we've got basic bolts here. I can take them out from my side and put them back in too with a bit of skill, of which I am dripping in.”

“ _And the bad news?_ ”

 Leo stared down at his walkie-talkie.“...The ...dead person? We all still remember that right? From, like, 5 minutes ago?”

“ _Oh, right. That. Uh, okay Leo, why don't you come back now. I think we've got a pretty good idea of what to do now._ ”

“Right-o.”

As Leo passed the skeleton again, he said goodbye. Maybe he should name it. Joel was already taken though.

 

\----

 

“How are the motion cameras, and motion lights working?” Piper asked, walking into the main room hub that was being currently run by Silena and Drew.

“Good, except the camera in c7 sector has slipped a bit. We're only getting pictures of butts.”

“Right,” Drew hummed, checking her nails. “It _slipped_.”

Piper sighed. “Okay, no tampering with the cameras.”

“Everything alright?” Hazel asked, peaking her head around the corner.

“Yeah, everything is fine.” Piper shot a look at Drew who just rolled her eyes. “I don't think there is any humanly possible way they could get past all the cameras we have set up. I doubt the white house has this much surveillance.”

“What do you think of the plan?”

“I don't know.” Piper shrugged. “I mean, this isn't really my forte like it is Annabeth or Reyna, but I just have a sneaking suspicion we're in for a surprise.”

“Yeah, I've got the same feeling. I know they say sometimes a good defense is the best offense, but it's a bit weird knowing we don't really know who our enemies are. What are we defending from?”

“I miss ordering pizza,” Silena said sadly. “Don't tell Calypso. Sometimes I just want a regular pizza you know, not whatever artisan thing she whips up on a whim.”

“If we knew who they were, we could seduce them into revealing their strategy. And then, like a preying mantis, rip off their heads.” Drew had yet to look up from her fingernails.

“That....uh aside, I just feel like we're overlooking something.” Hazel looked down at the floor, golden eyes fixed on a single spot. “I know I'm probably just being paranoid, and I know there is no chance they could charge us and get away with it....and yet...”

“I know,” Piper agreed with Hazel, but what more could they do? “But, for now, we stick to the plan. If something happens, we improvise.”

 

\---

 

“I don't like this.”

“We've got it all plotted out.”

“You don't though, anything inside the building is an unknown element, not to mention the biggest unknown, how they chose to move when the moment comes.”

“Have some faith. It _will_ work, Leo.”

“It better.”

 

\---

 

It was only about 11 o'clock when it happened, about 5 weeks since their agreement. Zeta and Alpha were in their rooms, or in the living and dining rooms. There didn't seem to be anything odd about this particular day, it was a Thursday for God's sake. Nothing ever happens on a Thursday.

Then Silena ran down the stairs, skidded along the ground, and popped her head into the dining room.

“Uh, guys, I think it might be happening?”

Everyone lurched up at full attention.

“Really? Right now?”

“There are three drones flying over head-- so yes, right now. They're circling the building.”

“Okay people, this is not a drill, everyo-” Percy was cut off by the buzz of Silena's headset.

“ _Smoke bombs!_ ” Drew's voice cut in through the noise and static from the hub. “ _We're blind! They set off, like, 30 smoke bombs_!”

“Everyone get to the windows and entrances, make sure everything is locked. If you're supposed to be a pursuer, get outside first, but for fucks sake don't let anyone in behind you. Go, Go, Go!” Percy yelled, throwing on a jacket and only successfully getting his arm through one hole.

Everyone got up, running around, occasionally bumping into one another in the scuffle. Half the house was heading outside, to protect the perimeter of the building, another half would be at all doors that led in, and all hallway windows, and every window in every other bedroom.

There was no possible way _anyone_ was getting into this house.

 

\---

 

Leo found himself back in that infernal pit, this time with a wagon full of supplies that helpfully slid along the cart rails. Even though it wasn't any darker or any lighter below ground, there was something a lot creepier about being where he was at night than in the middle of the day like he had previously. Every single shadow, every single noise, suddenly became far more malicious than it had been before.

Leo passed the skull, that he was affectionately calling Joe the Skull now, and made his way towards the end of the path. Getting there, and wiping off any cobwebs, Leo leaned his head against the panel and listened.

He heard nothing besides the hum of the boiler, which meant no one was in the room. Why would they defend the boiler room, if they thought there was no way in?

Leo got to work on undoing the rusty bolts, which would usually make his job a lot more difficult, but they were so old and so rusted it didn't take much at all to get them out.

The dangerous part of the job was gingerly pulling back the panel to reveal a completely black room. If he dropped it, it'd probably alert someone, but at least there was no one in the room.

Stage 1 was already a success.

Leo could only hope that everyone else was having as much luck as he was. It would only take a single one of them getting captured to ruin everything.

 

–

 

“We'll wait it out,” Annabeth had said, but after a few minutes when the smoke had begun to dissipate, it left them with a bigger mystery than before.

Around 30 people, decked in loose black robes had emerged from the smoke. They stood in a ring around the building. They had probably been there the entire time, but had just gone unseen in the haze of the smoke.

But, they didn't make a move, they just simply stood there. Watching, hidden by the shadows of their hoods.

“Why...aren't they making a move?” Percy asked, shifting to his other foot nervously. “I don't like this.”

“Me neither,” Jason agreed.

“I don't trust people who can get that many cloaks on short notice,” Percy mumbled. “Junior high mythomagic room all over again.”  
  
“Really? Because people in cloaks on my lawn worries me for _completely_ different reasons than board games.” Hazel said, rolling her eyes. Percy smiled, and mouthed a silent apology to the girl which Hazel laughed off.  
  
“It's not a board game,” Frank said quietly to himself, and Hazel patted him on the shoulder.  
  
“That might be the point, to make us deviate from our plan.” Reyna said, ignoring the boys. Annabeth stood silent, staring straight on into the darkness.

“Why don't you come on over!” Frank took a step forward, challenging the room and called out. “Unless, you've realized how pointless this is!”

“I don't think it's pointless at all, what about you Annie?” One of the hooded figures spoke, and Annabeth paused before looking surprised.

“Luke?” She asked, and the man pulled his hood back.

“Nice to see you again.”

“Maybe not under these circumstances.” Annabeth look mildly concerned, which concerned all of her housemates. Annabeth knew Luke was crafty, he might even be the ring leader, and combined with the other boy....they could be in for a massive surprise, but when and how?

“You're a distraction.” Annabeth stated, and got a laugh in return.

“Yeah, _duh_ , but for what?” Luke grinned and waved his finger back and forth slowly. "Tic-toc, tic-toc, come on Annie. This is final Jeopardy."

Frank paled and glanced around at the figures.

“Where is Leo?” Hazel asked, thinking the same thing.

“Leo left,” a girls voice said. “Something got to him, he bagged out.”

Frank and Hazel exchanged a look, there wasn't any way _they_ could have been the cause of that after their last encounter, could they?

“There's no way.” Frank mumbled. “He's around here waiting, I know it. But it doesn't matter, everything is locked and being monitored. He'll never get in. Right?”

Hazel bit her lip, but didn't say anything.

–

 

“I'm in,” Leo whispered to himself in his best stereotypical movie hacker voice.   
  
He switched on his flashlight to look around the room, but there was no sign of motion controlled cameras or lights, why would there be? He climbed out of the hole in the wall, which was on the ground thankfully, so he didn't have to jump or climb back in awkwardly.

As quietly as he could manage, Leo climbed the stairs out of the boiler room with a grab bag of fun toys, memories flashing across his head like deja vu. The door was locked, but, again, Leo had a bump key. And so, the room was no longer locked.

Leo looked around the dimly lit space, again, there didn't seem to be any cameras inside. They had apparently sunk most of their money into outdoor surveillance, which would make sense in most cases. They still had plenty of people indoors, guarding all the entrances. They probably thought their asses were well covered.

That'd be their downfall, if this worked out. If it didn't he'd probably ended up plucked and duct-taped to a flag pole.

Leo tiptoed up to the first story, glancing down and quickly moving past a hallway. There was a few people stationed down there, but none were looking behind them. Everyone was looking _out_ the windows.

The living room was through the kitchen, and Leo's grin just about broke his face when he sneaked a glance into the living room. It was completely dark and most importantly completely empty. The window here was large and didn't open, there wasn't a point in protecting it because it had it's own natural defenses. So far, everything seemed to be working in their favor. 

And so, Leo got to work.

Because there were still so many people in the house, Leo couldn't use anything noisy like spray cans. So, instead, he had buckets of paint. He couldn't use silly string for similar reasons, so he had a shit ton of glitter and confetti of all kinds. It's not like he could paint the whole room either, so Leo had a bunch of My Little Pony stickers to plaster the walls with. And then, for good measure, paper streamers to toss from every corner of the room. 

It all took about 5 minutes to complete entirely, and when Leo was done he took a hearty step backwards to enjoy the bounty of his work.

It looked like a concentrated bomb of party favors exploded in their living room.

Everything had a glow about it, like the first morning after a good snow, but instead of ice crystals every surface was covered in glitter. Reds, pinks, golds, heart shaped. Ponies danced around the walls gleefully, and the paper banners made it look like the worlds worst themed Prom.  
Similarly, Leo painted all sorts of hearts and cutesy expressions on the walls in a bright neon pink paint that was so bright it glowed in the dark. It actually, literally glowed in the dark, so that they couldn't ignore it no matter what.   
  
Then, of course, he painted entirely over the screen of their curved 52" television screen.

They wouldn't immediately know it was easily washable paint. The point was to prank, not to ruin....well, mostly.

No, the destruction came in the last act.

Leo popped a little live stream camera onto the mantlepiece above the television set, next to the book cases. He wouldn't be here for the last act, it was too dangerous, but the world would see it.

He moved to the wall behind a massive sofa, a wall he had purposely left mostly blank, and on it wrote:

_LEO WAS HERE <3_

Which all looked far more threatening than it did cute, as the paint dripped and distorted the heart and letters.

He pulled out his cellphone and took a number of pictures, including about 20 thumbs up and peace sign selfies.

“Hey, you guys are going to want to get out of there.” Leo whispered into his new walkie talkie. They didn't respond- they couldn't, it would give too much away.

Then Leo set the camera to start going live as soon as he would hopefully be well and gone, and moved onto the last stage of the plan.

Fireworks. Well, pyrotechnics was probably the more apt terminology.

Sure, there was a _small_ fire hazard risk involved, but they probably had fire extinguishers. Probably.

The fireworks had long fuses, timed fuses, and when it finally hit the mark, a fountain of colors and noises would come screaming out of them.

They had to up the ante somehow, and what was life without a few horrible decisions?

Leo grinned as he lit them, made sure all the fuses actually lit, before making a beeline for the boiler room. He had roughly 2 minutes to get the hell out of there, because once the live stream started and the fireworks started doing their thing, the entire campus would fall down upon them and it would be his head on the chopping board.

But, he made it. He made it unnoticed. Leo successfully made it back down, re-locked the door, made sure all the lights were turned off and then crawled back into the hole from whence he came.

He heard yelling before he got the panel completely done up, but no one was checking the boiler room just yet.

 

\---

“ _Hey, you guys are going to want to get out of there.”_     
Came Leo's voice through Luke's headset, and no one else was privy to this conversation.

 

“Well, it's been fun, but I'm afraid we've got to go.” Luke grinned, and yarded out another few smoke bombs, and everyone else fell in line and did the same. Well, the Zeta's thought they were smoke bombs, a few turned out to be strobe type fireworks.

The Zeta's and Alpha's looked shocked at this turn of events, as they had been making small talk up to that point.

“Wait, Luke-” Annabeth called, trying to slow them down.

“Catch them! They're planning something else!” Frank called, sensing something was array. If they got hit, somehow, without them noticing, they needed insurance. They needed to grab one, which would still constitute a win.

But, it was for not. The fraternity brothers and sorority sisters were momentarily blinded as they ran out onto the lawn and into the clouds of smoke and lights. They retreated coughing, while some looked for an opportunity to cut through the ring, but it was too late.

By the time it started to clear, they were gone, and then something else happened.

A bang. And then a whizz. And then lights. Coming from _inside_ the house, not the strobes on the lawn.

“What the-” Everyone turned to look at the house, and stood in horror as dawning realization kicked in.

“Open the door! Unlock the door now!” Reyna screamed, but it didn't happen fast enough, by the time everyone piled inside, and ran into the living room.

Silena and Drew ran in behind them, pushing people out of the way, brandishing a fire extinguisher and blew the cold foam over everyone and everything. It put a stop to the fireworks, but it was too late.

The room was coated. Valentines had blown its load over every wall and every surface.

“Inspect the house,” Annabeth said with clenched teeth. No one moved.

“Did...we lose?” Miranda whispered, and no one said a thing.

“Go.” Frank ordered, his fists were balled up so tight he wouldn't be surprised if it drew blood. Leo's message was clearly displayed on the wall. “Everyone. Go. Now. Inspect the house. Follow your orders.”

They exchanged looks before wandering off, everyone muttering to themselves. How had they really lost, again?

“And yet, there is even worse news,” Calypso drawled, holding up her phone. They were all on the screen, in real time.

“They're streaming this? From where?” Jason asked, before looking around. Piper noticed the camera first and crushed it under her foot, cutting the stream short. It didn't matter, there were already thousands of people in the room, the chat was filled with people laughing and cheering on the pranksters.

“They've won, haven't they?” Percy had a stormy look on his face.

“I think so,” Hazel agreed, sighing. “I'm impressed.”

“How? How did they do it? We had everything covered!” Annabeth began pacing, which was never a good sign.

“We never saw anything on the cameras,” Silena said softly. “No one got in. Everyone was in their places.”

“Unless,” Annabeth paused. “It was an inside job. Someone was working with them, let them in, and allowed this to happen.”

“What?! There's no way!”

“I'd bet Octavian,” Calypso muttered, side eying the blond. “I say we lock him in the basement, for at least a few years.”

“Why is kidnapping your answer for everything?” Percy looked mildly concerned.

Octavian, on the other hand, looked outraged at the suggestion. “I was outside with all of you! I couldn't have possibly!”

“As much as I hate to admit it, Octavian is a Machiavellian rat, but he isn't exactly a traitor to the house itself.” Reyna sighed. “He might eventually stab us all in the back, but he wouldn't purposely make the house look bad.”

“Yeah- wait, hey!”

“Shut up Octavian.”

“Then the camera room.” Annabeth mumbled, her cold eyes drifting up to Silena and Drew.

“There were two of us there the entire time, and two people at least in every hallway and window!” Drew glared, highly insulted. “Maybe you should just accept the fact you're not as smart as you think you are, princess!”

“Woah, woah.” Piper stepped up in between the two women. “Okay, emotions are high right now. Let's wait to point fingers until we've thoroughly checked out the building. There must have been something we missed, or overlooked. Let's just...calm down.”

Annabeth dropped her tensed shoulders, and Drew huffed before marching into the kitchen.

“I can't believe he...they one upped us again, after all of this.” Frank sighed, wanting to sit down, but not wanting to get covered in glitter. Not after what happened last year..

“Looks like we owe them a European vacation.” Hazel said cheerfully, seeming far less bothered than anyone else

“Uh, guys?” Michael Yew popped his head in the room. “Yeeeah, so.... someone called the cops on us because of the fireworks? There's a sheriff outside, with the dorm manager.”

“I hate him.” Frank kicked over a foam coated firework.

 

\---

 

“ _We did it! We did it!_ ” The cheering filtered through the walkie talkie as Leo was preparing to walk back through down path.

“Damn straight we did.”

“ _Good job Leo!_ ” Nyssa's yelled extra loudly over someone, and similar sentiments joined it.

“ _We're going to go down in infamy!_ ” Travis declared which started the cheering over again. Leo was laughing but trying not to in case anyone could hear him through the walls.

It was just a matter of luck, that Leo turned his flashlight on that specific spot at that specific moment and saw a glint.  
Frowning, Leo walked the few feet to the spot, which was only about 15 feet from the panel. There was a ton of dirt and mud, but it looked like....something gold was buried under the ground.

Leo got to his knees and brushed the mud away, revealing what appeared to be a gold ring, but when he stuck his fingers down to pull it up he just hit something more solid. So he brushed a bit more away, and realized it was actually a laurel atop the head of...something.

He dug more, brushed more, entranced. Leo stopped noticing the joyous comments coming through his speakers, he was completely focused.

He stopped when it was completely revealed. A gold statue, about a foot and a half high, probably of some Greek or Roman goddess. Leo tried to lift the object out of it's hole, but it was heavy. Extremely heavy.

“Holy fuck... this is solid gold,” Leo whispered.

“ _Yeah it is! That was totally solid gold!_ ” Jake yelled over the speaker. Leo shook his head but didn't say anything more.

Leo looked down the dark path, not seeing anything, but he knew what was there.

Was this what Joe the Skull had died over? Had he hid it, and then died further down the path? Why? Did he intend to come back to it, or was he murdered on the way out?

It took more strength than Leo was used to exerting, but he pulled the statue up and out of the hole with a grunt.

“ _Wooah, Leo, I don't know what you're doing, but I do not want to hear that. I understand, but, still. Turn off your walkie talkie first_.”

“Oh my god, oh my god, holy fuck, oh my god.” Leo babbled, looking in the hole he had removed the statue from.

There was another fucking gold thing under it.

Leo found _actual_ real life buried treasure. 

“ _Gross, Leo!_ ” Someone called, laughing all the while.

“SHUT UP!” Leo yelled, and heard the partying cool down.

“ _Uh, are you okay?_ ” Will asked.

“No, yes. No. Yes? No. I found something.”

“ _Oh my god, did you find another goddamn dead person? Leo, this is weird. You're like a fucking police dog or some shit_.”

“No, I found out why Joe died though, I think.” Leo grinned as he dug out around the second statue. It was an eagle, and likely also solid gold.

  
" _...Your dick?_ "   
  
"No, that's Joel." Leo rolled his eyes, plebs.

“Look...I found something I need you to see. I can't really explain it besides...Guys, I think we're going to be rich.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -
> 
> So, that was the chapter. Probably had a bunch of mistakes in it. Leo found a skull, gave Narcissus a HJ, had an adventure. How are you guys? You good? You look nice today, your hair is doing that thing it does? It's nice.

**Author's Note:**

> bump key = a specific type of key for lock picking tumbler style locks
> 
> NU ( Alpha Sigma Tau) = Nikolas University / ΑΣΤ
> 
> Carigan University = Zeta Delta Epsilon, Epsilon Theta Phi / ΖΛΕ, ΕΤΦ
> 
> Henderson = Alpha Zeta Tau/ΑΖΤ
> 
> (Gwen's alias was King Arthur because she likes Arthurian Legend, but oddly enough not a big fan of Gwenevere or Lancelot. Lou Ellen's alias is Willow, because she's a wiccan and suuuuper gay.)
> 
> good luck on your finals and exams people who are of..a schooling..sort right now and are still having their I don't know. good luck.
> 
> as always, I'm at historicallyinnacurate.tumblr.com send me an ask or an IM or whatever and say hey.


End file.
